Utter darkness engulfed him when Henry shot up on his sheet. He heaved frantically, the sounds of his own breaths permeated his ears and shrill statics sparked before his eye, painting the contours of Kismet's cave in violently clashing colors.

Henry swallowed and squinted, then wiped the pearls of sweat from his forehead and took a conscious breath. In and out. It varies with your state of mind, Kismet's voice rang in his head, the world will look different when you're scared than when you're angry or contented. In and out.

When Henry had taken his third breath the static had calmed. The cave looked as ever, apart from the fact that he saw it not with his eye. For a moment he focused, and, as expected, it was empty.

Henry's gaze darted at the wall beside him. He saw nothing, of course, but he knew how many tally-marks it were anyway. A hundred and thirty-two. His hand automatically reached for the piece of chalk and he ran his fingers over the wall until he found the spot. One hundred and thirty-three.

Minutes passed as Henry sat still, cowered at the wall, staring out into the darkness. He was not scared. Not anymore. Any intruder he'd instantly make out by the sound of their footsteps, and besides, there were no intruders here. Nobody ever came here. There were only two entrances – the way from the direction of the citadel, through the Path of Styx, and the passage that led through the cave with the steaming creek and eventually to the lake.

Despite the darkness, his head turned to the wall. His echolocation painted it as a colorless shape, yet he fixated the spot where he knew the sixty-fifth mark was. He had made it especially bold so that it stood out. Because it had been a... special day.

Henry scoffed and pulled his legs to his chest. He stared into the darkness, wishing to scratch that particular mark from the wall altogether.

He had been... running, he thought, for the first time attempting to recall his nightmare. Running and screaming, yet he'd had no control over his vocal cords. Nothing had escaped his throat, and the all-consuming silence had been scarier than any darkness could ever be. He could not see. Henry squinted. Not see, not hear, not –

How long had it been, since he'd had the last nightmare? The exiled prince took a deep breath and forced himself to remember – the cold amber stare from beyond the glass.

He shook his head angrily. Why was he having nightmares again? They had not plagued him at all here, and this one had been... Henry squinted, he had been running, but running where? He had been searching for... something or... someone, he shuddered. Calling, crying, flailing in darkness, yet nobody had come. Who had he expected to come?

We will fly together. His body stiffened as the words rang in his head. We will – Henry squinted. He attempted to take himself back to it, back to... yet to his horror the memory was so faint he barely recalled any of it. To fly, he clenched his jaw, to... fly...

He is not coming back.

Even thinking the words drove tears into Henry's eye. Angrily, he wiped them away. He is not... sixty-eight days. The number popped into his head instantly, one more than sixty-seven, which had been yesterday's number. But yesterday Kismet had chased him through a challenge run three times in a row and he had been dead on his feet. His sleep had been black and dreamless. So had most nights been.

Or... no, the challenge run had been two days ago. If he was awake, tomorrow was today. And yesterday she had taken it easy on him. Some focus-oriented exercises, some aiming with the slingshot and with Mys, a bit of sword handling, and of course the daily control exercises. Kismet said he was fairly good at controlling this, how she called it, "sixth sense" yet Henry felt it was very much out of control most of the time. Like earlier.

Kismet said he was pushing himself too hard. But if he wanted to improve he had to push himself. He would not get better if he did not push himself.

Of course, he had made significant progress since he had passed the threshold initially. He barely ever suffered sensory overload anymore, and learning to differentiate between background- and foreground sounds had made what well-enough resembled a new sense significantly more applicable. Kismet claimed he would soon be able to use it in battle actively, to judge what his vision could not anymore – distance, depth, even speed, and angles of attacks.

Henry clenched his teeth and determinately stood up. Maybe he should go practice on his own if Kismet was not yet up. The more he practiced, the sooner he would master it, and then he could –

An arrow pierced his heart when he made himself aware of the sobering truth – he had nowhere to go. Not anymore. Not on his own.

Maybe he should not rush himself so, in that case. Henry slowly sank back down to cower on his sheet again. Maybe he should take his time, as Kismet always urged. If he took his time, he would be occupied for longer. He would not have to ask himself what he would do afterward for longer.

Henry angrily wiped at his face. Maybe he should ditch the stupid tally. He did not want to count the days anyway. Let it all blur into a continuous loop. He nearly smiled. Let it all blur, and let me forget.

Henry sighed once more, then pulled himself to his feet. It was useless to sit around here. Suddenly he felt as though he could not sit still for a moment longer. Maybe he should go run the parkour again. He hadn't done so in ages, not without some extra task or challenge attached to it, at least. Maybe it was time.

Silently, Henry slipped out of the cave and made his way down the cliff. This had become so much easier ever since he could actually perceive where he was going. It'll be a calm day again, Henry forced himself to smile as he jumped the last couple feet. Nothing to bother with, nothing to –

"HENRY!"

He winced as Kismet's voice sounded to his right and instantly clenched the handle of Mys at the back of his hip, assuming attack position. She had never sounded like this, not a single time, so that had to mean –

"Henry you must come!"

His head jerked to where her shrill voice painted her contours. Kismet nearly leaped at him, from the cave with the creek. "Henry, it is your flier!"

The rat tooth dagger he had drawn preemptively slipped from Henry's hand. His... "What?"

"Your flier, he was attacked", she heaved and began pushing him forward, though not without scooping up Mys first. "He says he has run into rats in the vicinity – RATS, HERE! It is unbelievable!", she scoffed yet Henry had a hard time even paying attention. "They had cut off his way back, so he claims, that's why he has been gone for so long. And now that he had found a moment to slip through, he was spotted and injured."

"He..." Henry stopped so abruptly Kismet nearly ran into him. He barely perceived any of his surroundings so overwhelmingly pungent was the pounding of his own heart in his ears. "Cut... off?"

"Yes, apparently there exists a way from here to... OH, he can tell you this better than I", Kismet relentlessly shoved him forward, "I've not asked him for details. But you must help me carry him, or I fear he will –"

In the same heartbeat, Henry perceived a figure darting out of the tunnel ahead and towards them. His wings flapped once, twice, and the sound painted such a clear image of his surroundings the exiled prince thought barely any natural sound had ever worked so well.

"Hey, I told you we'd come for you!", Kismet snarled at Thanatos who circled once, then landed in front of them. "You shouldn't fly like –"

"It is but a scratch, don't bother."

The voice rang hoarsely in Henry's ears and for some reason, his heartbeat quickened even more. He sounded so... so... "Hadn't had anyone to talk to in a while, eh?" The exiled prince could not suppress a grin.

"Henry", the flier's head darted up. "No... not really." He sighed. "I've got much to tell you, I..."

"I've got much to tell you too!" Henry was nearly mowed down by the enormous wave of relief that hit as soon as his brain had properly processed the shape in front of him. The voice. "Oh, oh so much!"

"Wait... wait... hold on..." Henry's eye was round and large as he stared at Thanatos, in the flickering light of the torch he had put up with some of the last fuel he had. "There is a... cave system... BELOW the waterway? And you say it's... what, COLD?"

"Not just cold", Thanatos shook his head, eyeing the wing Henry had had to stitch up. It hadn't been a large rip, only a couple inches. Kismet ought to see the kinds of injuries the flier had flown with before. Maybe then she would not freak out so much over what both Henry and Thanatos dismissed as a nuisance. Even the cut on his leg looked more vicious, though the exiled prince thought that probably was because it had bled.

"Frozen", Kismet beat the flier to responding and he nodded. "I have never seen so much ice. It occasionally occurs in great depths, I have encountered a partially frozen water body in a tunnel leading downward from the Dead Land a long time ago, yet...", he visibly shuddered. "This is a whole system made up of icy tunnels... and you will never guess where it leads."

Kismet and Henry exchanged excited gazes. The tale the flier then shared exceeded their wildest expectations – "A way... from here to the Dead Land, below the waterway?" Kismet's voice oozed worry. "As incredible as this is, it is not good. Who knows where else it leads, if it leads here?"

Yet Henry barely listened. His mind reeled, attempting to digest all the new insights and possibilities the flier's story brought with itself. "So you... you found that ice system and... were trapped in the Dead Land because the rats had sealed your way back?"

"I... presume they have found the entrance on the other side." Thanatos looked at the floor.

"That would mean there are most likely more, here somewhere", Kismet sighed, "we must be careful. I do wonder why no one has ever found it before if it is truly so obvious, though. Not even I have ever heard of such a thing as an icy cave system beneath the waterway."

"It could have been sealed", Thanatos pondered, "perhaps a recent volcanic eruption opened the entrance?"

Henry and Kismet exchanged another look. "That would be the only explanation", the rat glanced back and forth between Henry and Thanatos. "And they caught up to you on your way back?"

The flier nodded. "I only lost them near the orange-glowing lake."

The three sat in silence for a while and Henry couldn't help but stare at Thanatos, sensing an excited tingle run down his spine. He was here, and... His gaze darted to the wall, clustered with tally-marks, and his heartbeat quickened. Was this it? The future he had not wanted to imagine because he had not believed it was possible anymore? Was this his... he looked back at Kismet and suddenly felt a sting of sadness... his incentive to leave?

"Oh, if nobody else will say it, I will", the rat at last snarled, "you wish to go and explore that ice system, and I am the last who will stop you."

Henry pressed his lips together, yet before he could speak, Thanatos raised his voice again – "There is actually... something else, something I found in there, on my way back. It is deeply wedged into the ice yet it seems not like a stone – none I have ever seen, at least."

Henry's brow furrowed. "If it is not stone, what is it then?"

"I am... uncertain. It has a metallic shine about it, yet it is too large for a vein – and have you ever seen any metal that is black?"

"Black?", Henry echoed and his frown deepened. He barely stopped himself from calling he needed to take a look as soon as possible.

His gaze automatically darted to Kismet who crookedly grinned. "What are you still sitting around here for, then?" She shook her head, "You have learned everything and more than what you came here to learn", she turned to Thanatos, "he has passed the second threshold of echolocation around a month ago. You will definitely not be running a liability by keeping him around anymore."

The flier's eyes widened. "Is... that so? You are...", he hesitated, "done, then? Already?"

"What do you mean, already?", Henry frowned, "It took long enough."

"I was expecting this to take years, if I am being honest", the flier mumbled but Henry blissfully ignored it. He had... learned everything he had come here to learn, and more. His gaze locked onto his sword that leaned in a corner, and he barely restrained himself from leaping in joy. This was it, he grinned and rose to his feet. This was the day he would finally get out of here again and back into the real world, back to adventures, and perils, and... his gaze darted at Thanatos – back to how it had been before?

The thought resonated in his mind with every movement, and he had not felt so enlivened in forever. It barely took him ten minutes to gather up his scattered belongings and when he then shouldered his backpack and turned, Kismet stood before him. "Are you not forgetting something?"

Henry stared at her for a few heartbeats, vigorously combatting the tears that suddenly rose in his eye. The cave around him flickered with the light from the torch and his mind enriched the image with vibrant detail. Nearly four months he had spent here, laughing, screaming, crying, fighting, struggling... and now?

Before Kismet could react he had wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Yeah, I am."

"THAT is NOT what I meant –!", Kismet yelped, though Henry registered a short moment of hesitation before she grabbed him by the collar. Her eye was but a narrow slit yet he perfectly sensed her reluctance to say goodbye.

"This is what I meant", she snarled and put him back on his feet, then held out a tattered leather book. "I told you you'd get it back once our contract would be fulfilled. And well, here we are."

"My notebook!", Henry snatched it from her with a wide grin. "FINALLY!"

"You earned it", was all she replied and the exiled prince gave her the most sincere smile he could muster. "Really?"

"Oh yes", she narrowed her eye again. "But if you ever so much as ATTEMPT TO HUG me again I will claw your other eye out as well, are we clear?"

Henry only broke into laughter. "Crystal clear!"

She followed him to the entrance where Thanatos waited, his gaze darted back and forth between the two. "You have actually come to tolerate each other, haven't you?"

Henry grinned and shouldered his backpack, then mounted up. His spine tingled with the excitement the prospect of flying again brought with itself. "Oh yeah. She's awesome", he shot Kismet another grin. "Mind if I come back someday? Wouldn't want you to forget me, right?"

"Oh, do not worry, you are not one who is forgotten easily", she mumbled and squinted at them from where she cowered at the wall. "You will... beware, won't you? Do not make the mistake to believe yourself invincible now, most importantly. Strong you are, but you've still a long way to go", she lifted herself from the wall, "And you have packed enough supplies? There will hardly be anything to eat in a place coated in ice... and speaking of coats, do you even have enough warm clothing to –"

"KISMET!", Henry cut her off and theatrically rolled his eye. "I'll be FINE. You said it yourself, all those months ago", he smiled as he recalled their first conversation, "I'm a survivor – right? A survivor who must leave, lest you forget battle is an art and make it messy!"

Kismet let out a hoarse laugh. In the light from the torch Henry now raised above his head, her fur shone almost white. "It is not your survival ability that worries me", she grew serious all of a sudden, "you must promise you will take care. You both."

Henry opened his mouth to reply, yet all words escaped him. Had she not once adamantly refused to even listen to him, to even consider teaching him? And now... The exiled prince attempted to wipe at his face discretely, yet she could have hardly overheard the loud sniff he could not suppress.

"We will take care", Thanatos replied and Henry nodded. "You too though."

He screamed a last – "We'll come and visit soon!" after Thanatos had spread his wings. "Run like the river, Kismet!"

The flier already circled the cliff, ready to dive into the tunnel towards the cave with the creek and the exit beyond, when she at last called – "Fly you high, Achilles! But not too high, you do not want to end like Icarus!"

"Who is..." – "Don't ask, I have no clue", Henry cut Thanatos' question off. "She's been calling me all these strange names, throughout my stay here. I think they are people from some old Overland legends she's into."

"And you have never asked?"

"Look, I was busy, okay?" Henry sighed. Suddenly he regretted not having asked. The story she had told him about the adventurer Odysseus had been incredible, maybe each of these characters had a story such as his?

It was strange, to fly again. Henry soon extinguished his torch and closed his eye, allowing the even sound of Thanatos' wings to paint his surroundings before his inner eye. A rush of incredible satisfaction overwhelmed him as he made himself aware of the familiar wind in his hair, on his face. He should have never gone so long without flying.

Henry's mouth curved into a smile. For a moment the memory of his nightmare last night flashed before his inner eye yet he quickly dismissed it. Now was not the time to worry. Now was the time to look forward and anticipate the endless possibilities that lied ahead once more.

Henry suddenly felt like the shackle of weakness that had tied him down, suffocated, and rendered him helpless, over what had felt like an eternity, had finally broken. He was... free.

"So, what do we do now?", he broke the piercing silence. "After we fetch that rock – or whatever it is?" It can be like before, Henry thought and flashed back to the time after he had rescued Thanatos from the spinners. It can finally be like –

"I am not sure...", the flier darted into the cave with the lake and the waterfall. Henry watched his large, black reflection in the glistening water before he zoomed in on a tunnel high up in the air.

"Dead Land?", Henry suggested, turning his head to catch a last glimpse at the so familiar orange glow. He could barely believe he would most likely not see it again in a long time now. "I bet the plague is long defeated", he tore his eye away from the last bit of glow and faced forward. "They'll need mercenaries again now, right?"

Thanatos only hummed. "I... I am not sure this is all so easy. With how many lives it cost and how widely spread it was, do you really think the plague will be –"

"Or MAYBE", Henry's eye widened as an image flashed before his inner eye. Kismet's shape was replaced by that of another light grey rat – "Do you remember that arena? The one we killed Sizzleblood in?"

Thanatos hummed confusedly. "Of course. What about it?"

Henry's mouth curved into a grin. "Do you think the guy... Splintleg, was it? Do you think he takes applications?"

"Appli- Henry!", Thanatos called and took a sharp turn, "You can not be serious!"

"Why not?", he frowned and scooted around, "I can fight again now. And I want to fight! I've not fought an actual opponent in... AGES! And how incredible would that be, a human champion in a gnawer arena! Now that is a first I would like to be known for!"

"You... ARE serious", Thanatos replied and his voice was loaded with bitterness. "Don't you think that – apart from how this is the single most irresponsible idea you had in... perhaps ever, actually – you should take it a little easy for now? You JUST learned this... whatever it is, higher echolocation or whatnot. Maybe it is best to wait until you've got a better grip on it before you rush into battle."

Henry's excitedly opened mouth snapped shut. His glee abated and made way for frustration. Who even gives him the right, he frowned and wrapped his arms around himself, to snuff out all my anticipation like this?

"Do you have to be so negative?", he hissed and shivered. "I mean, the point was to learn how to fight again, and I did learn – MAN is it COLD HERE!"

"Well, it is the... how did you say? Ice System... for a reason", the flier resolutely replied and Henry wrapped his arms even tighter around himself. He curiously watched the small clouds his breaths created for a few minutes, then fetched his coat. Yet even with the coat, the deeper they descended into the wide tunnel, the colder it became.

Ten minutes of steep descent must have passed and Henry had fetched his torch to light it again, despite how little fuel he had. The flame could at least warm him up. But as the torch ignited, Thanatos landed.

"You must squeeze past this part on foot, I can not fly through here." He pointed ahead into a narrow crack in the wall. Yet Henry was more taken up by the shimmer the stone seemed to emit when his torchlight hit it and carefully extended a hand, only to jerk back instantly. "AH! Man, that's... icy! Ha!" Thanatos only rolled his eyes and proceeded through what appeared to be a fresh crack in the rock.

Henry stared at the wall for a moment longer. The film of ice was so thin he could barely see it, and yet... Frozen water, He smiled and finally followed Thanatos through the crack. He had only ever heard of ice, and when he emerged on the other side, his jaw dropped. "Wow... this is gorgeous!"

"It is... quite the sight", Thanatos appeared beside him, "yet we should not linger. I told you there were gnawers here."

Henry barely tore his gaze away from the magnificent, white glittering of the stone around him and nearly slipped on his way over to Thanatos. The echo of his cry vibrated the entire cave, it was like the ice enhanced the effect and Henry cursed.

"Be quiet."

"Sorry", Henry grumbled and mounted up. The flier's claws scraped the strange substance as he lifted off. "It's so..." So cold, and smooth, and glistening, the exiled prince smiled. Like... Angrily, Henry chased the uprising image. It could not have been ice, he reprehended himself. Back when I had that dream I barely knew ice existed.

Still, now that he had remembered it, the image would not leave him alone, and it cost Henry all his willpower to keep the stupid emotions that welled up in him again now at bay.

This was exactly what he had wanted to avoid. He had wanted to look forward to an adventure, like back when things had been easier. Less defined, less constraining. To forget all that had happened after... He remains with me for convenience – or whatever reason, really. I don't even want to know.

Why do you not even want to know? Why do you not want to hear that I care about you? How is this so hard to believe for you?

Suddenly, all Henry wanted was out of here. Out of here and back to the Dead Land, back into some sort of routine... a routine they did not have. In fact, his mouth he had opened to ask how far it still was adamantly shut. Thanatos did not even want to go back to doing what they had done before.

Don't you think you should take it a little easy for now? Easy. Henry nearly scoffed. He had taken it easy the last four months. He had done exactly what Thanatos had wanted of him, he had found a damned solution for his damned problem, so what was the problem now?

Maybe you are... taking it a little too far this time, do you not think?

Henry's eye jolted open.

It is not for your own benefit either, to give them all a reason to hate you. What do you gain out of the trouble all this is going to create?

Right. It had always gone like this. For each and every idea he had ever presented to Ares the flier had either cautiously protested or silently obliged, always with that particular... disapproving look, though. Like he had not cared for what Henry wanted. For what he needed. All he has ever done was hold me back, the exiled prince frowned and picked at the hilt of his torch. All he has...

If Thanatos truly knew what he needed, why was he protesting now? And if he did not... he was supposed to know what Henry needed, was he not? Was it not what bonds did? Together, the exiled prince clenched his fist, together in life and death and war and strife. Together. Then why was he –

"Here it is", Thanatos shot out into a vast cave and Henry immediately noticed there was something wedged into the floor, directly in the center. When the flier landed he cautiously dismounted and stepped closer, his jaw dropped. Henry nearly slipped as the floor declined by a couple inches around the object, like an ancient crater of something that had once impacted with incredible speed.

He cautiously slid down and knelt beside the object, when he then extended a hand to touch it he jerked back from how cold it was. It was maybe eight or nine inches in diameter and of a shiny, black substance, unlike anything he had ever seen. "Woah", he quietly mumbled and sensed fresh excitement rise in his chest. "What the hell even is this?"

"I have no idea", Thanatos replied from behind him and Henry frowned. "Maybe we can take it to Teslas, he might know what it is. He's great with rocks, right?" Henry stood up and drew his sword. The tip rammed into the ice beneath the object and it took the exiled prince some five minutes to entirely excavate it. By the end of the procedure, he barely felt his hands anymore and cursed for not having proper gloves. Then again, how could he have ever predicted to end up in a place best described as Ice System?

"Wow, it's so... light", Henry heaved it out using a large piece of fabric and tossed it up a couple times, surprised for it weighed maybe half of what he had expected. "I REALLY want to know what this is."

Thanatos watched as the exiled prince attempted to make room for it in his stuffed backpack. "We perhaps should...", but Henry interrupted him – "Let's get the hell out of here, okay? I'm FREEZING! We can get out the way you did, right?", he shivered as he pressed his stash of fabrics into the backpack with force, then struggled to shut it. "Where did you come from?"

Thanatos twitched. "I... we must take a different path, it's a detour of maybe ten minutes."

Henry nodded, shouldered his backpack, and stepped towards the torch he had put up to have light for his work. And of course, there was also the beautiful sparkling effect it produced on the icy walls. Yet before he could reach it, he froze. "Wait... what?" He frowned and stared at the flier, "Didn't you say earlier you came across this thing on your way back from the Dead Land? How is it a detour then?"

The flier's head jerked around. "I... did I say that?" His eyes narrowed, "I must have mixed that up, I mean it was on my way back, but I had been chased in here by the rats to then discover this was a dead end."

Henry's frown deepened and he clutched the straps of his backpack as hard as he could, with his stiff fingers. "You...", his gaze darted over to the only entrance. It was barely wide enough for Thanatos to traverse flying. "You got out of here through... THAT? Were those rats stupider than the ones we usually see or why did they not just block the entrance?"

The ice began to crack beneath Thanatos' claws, so hard he dug them into the ground. "They... they were..."

"You didn't discover this on your way back at all, did you?" Between his fingers, Henry violently twisted the large piece of fabric he had used to heave the material out of the hole, it had not fit into his backpack. "Did you... lie to me?" Tell me I am wrong, he pleaded silently. Just tell me I'm an idiot, and point at the obvious logical inconsistency in all this I'm missing like you always do. Just, please...

Yet all that followed his accusation was a deathly silence.

"You..." His hands trembled, digging into the piece of fabric. What had even gotten into Thanatos? He had never been dishonest. Not a single time... But if he was silent, it meant it was not a misunderstanding. It was...

"Why did you... LIE to me? About such a nuisance, too", Henry forced the icy air in and out of his lungs, "This is not like you, I... We are bonds, are we not? Bonds are not supposed to lie to each other." He shakily took a step forward, "How could you have...?" Utter confusion clustered his mind, rendered him unable to think straight. To come up with an explanation, any sort of... Lies. Lies... suddenly a familiar kind of pain jolted through him, like he had only experienced once. "You... betrayed me."

"Oh... I am certainly not the traitor here."

"What...?", Henry squeezed out and reeled a step back. "What... are you talking about? I never betrayed you!"

He desperately attempted to swallow the lump clogging his throat. Why the hell had he even said anything? Henry's head pounded with the urgent desire to go a few minutes back in time and not say anything, just pretend he hadn't noticed. Then everything would be as before. Then he wouldn't have to... Don't do this, he internally pleaded, don't do this, not now. Not now when everything was going so well. Not now when – "C... can we get out of here please? I'm cold", he wrapped his arms around himself, "I want –"

"YOU want." The tons of frozen water that surrounded them were nothing against the sudden ice in Thanatos' voice. "Oh, YOU certainly WANT. YOU speak of being bonds, like you have any right to", he broke off and shuddered, shook his head. "Alright. We will talk about this now, then. How could I have ever allowed myself to..."

"Talk about... What are you... talking about?!" Henry cried and agitatedly twisted the fabric, attempting to clear his buzzing head. What was happening... why was this argument happening... what had... happened...?

If I express it, it will not change the fact that he does not care for me. He remains with me for convenience – or whatever reason, really. I don't even want to know.

A wave of panic overwhelmed him and pressed the last bit of air from his lungs. "Y... you..."

"You know what, fine", the flier suddenly sat up and stared at him with narrowed eyes. Between them gaped the pit that had previously held the strange black object. "You are correct. I did not find this thing on my way back. I was not on my way back when I was attacked, either. I probably should have thought this story through better, but it doesn't really matter."

"Should have... thought...?", Henry stared at him, the fabric between his fingers stiffened from cold. "Do you mean to say you stayed away deliberately?" His mind flashed with an image of his tally wall. Sixty-eight days. Sixty-eight days of... "But why –"

"Because your presence is nothing short of SUFFOCATING, did you really not ever catch that?!"

"Suffo... what...?" Henry nearly dropped the piece of fabric. His eye widened and he resisted the impulse to take another step back. "Wait, so all this time..."

I just feel like... some time away from him would do me good sometimes, you know? The voice speaking in his head was that of Ares, but it sounded strangely distorted, strangely like... "You stayed away because you wanted to be... away from me?"

"You..." The flier narrowed his eyes to sharp slits. "It is always about you, is it not? You, and you, and you –" His wings jolted open and shut again, and his fur stood on end. "You take, and take, and take, and I give, because it is all I can do! Because I have pledged myself to you, because I have attached myself to you!" His voice echoed from the walls, every word like another stab to the heart.

"Out of all who could have fallen that day, out of all who I could have saved... what have I ever done for the universe to hate me so much it sent me YOU?!"

All Henry could do was stare. He barely followed the torrent of words streaming from the flier's mouth, barely registered any of it. Something was not right here, he numbly clutched the fabric, something must have gone wrong somewhere. This was not supposed to happen. This was not...

"Well", he barely recognized his own voice, so toneless it sounded, "maybe you should have stayed with Hamnet then. Too bad he is dead."

The flier's ears twitched, "You... how do you... did you eavesdrop?" Henry only pressed his lips together and Thanatos scoffed. "Oh well, it's not like it matters anymore. I see now that he was right to warn me. I attempted to play it down then, tell myself it is worth it if only I have something... someone to live for, but then I found myself with all this time away from you, and... you were not the only one who learned something in that time. Do you want to know what it was I learned?"

He waited not for a reply. "I learned that it really is not worth it. It is not a life, it has never been, not in seven years. I thought I had reached the peak of my misery alone, yet apparently, I had not."

"What... are you talking about?" Henry managed a step forward. Questions clogged his head furiously. He does not care for me. "What am I... What have I ever done wrong? I don't understand, how can you say that I don't...?"

"What have you ever...?" The flier's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "You really STILL don't get that...? Even with everything I've... well", his talons dug into the ice, in his periphery Henry registered the quiet cracking. "Let's just say, it makes sense now. I've always wondered... I meant to ask, but I guess now I know why your former bond let you fall... I only wish I would have had the strength to do it too."

Henry stood frozen solid. Suddenly it was like the ice around him breathed, its strained heaving closed in on him, grew, sought to enclose him.

"You are a PARASITE – a parasite that has attached itself to me, to drain the last bit of life I had left, and will not let go! Will not allow me to let it go! Why will you not LET ME GO?!"

The fabric between his fingers ripped apart. The sound pierced Henry's ears like an arrow. "W... what?", he pressed out of his clogged throat, desperately blinking away the rising tears. "Can you tell me what I did... wrong?" All attempts to not sound desperate were forgotten. A strange cacophony of sounds he normally did not even register threatened to overwhelm him. The creaking of ice. The crackling of his torch. The frantic beats of his heart. "Please... help me...!"

Yet the flier... his flier... undauntedly spoke on, disregarding his plea like he had not even heard it – "If only I could have listened to Hamnet, if only I would have had the strength to see... WHAT you were from the get-go. Then again, I... did see it, even before all this. Before you shackled us to each other. Before it was... too late."

"Too... late?"

"Too late for you, certainly!" Both flier and boy jumped when a third voice suddenly snarled behind them and it took Henry a full five seconds to register he was staring at one of at least a dozen rats. They had streamed in through the sole entrance and of course, blocked it spitefully.

His gaze darted to Thanatos. Neither he nor the flier had –

"Oh would you look at that", the rat who had spoken earlier continued, "it is the same flier who slipped through our claws last time. Longclaw will be delighted to see you! He says it's been a while!"

Somewhere at the back of his mind, Henry knew he should devise a plan to escape. Should draw his sword, should slice all their throats as expertly as Kismet had taught him. Yet he was unable to move a single muscle.

Even when two rats came up behind him to grab his arms and push him towards the exit he remained still as stone. Still as ice. He stared ahead dazedly, combatting the sounds flooding in on him from all directions. Why did I ever even push myself to pass this wretched threshold, he squinted in a desperate attempt to block it all out. Oh, how much easier had that been before.

Through what else his ears were ringing with Henry barely registered it when the tone of the rats around him suddenly shifted. He blinked and noticed they had already exited the cave, yet something upset them. Something like... "You all hear that, right?"

"Hey, I thought the water was supposed to go out, not in!"

"That is what he said when –"

A swelling, swiftly approaching rushing sound interrupted the rat and before Henry could properly register what it was, he saw the first outskirt of glow, then... The rat beside him cried as Thanatos wrung one of his wings out of his grasp. The last thing the exiled prince registered was the visceral panic in his eyes before the swell of icy water hit.

Henry's senses failed him as he was engulfed, his vision went black and he feared to drown in the agonizing swell of noises more than the water. It consumed and swallowed him, dragged him along like a weightless paper boat. Henry curled into a ball and squeezed his eye shut, then cried and swallowed water as he violently smacked into something.

Lights sparked before his eye and he barely twisted out of reach of the rat's claws. They were all here, the rats, Henry, and... the exiled prince meekly extended an arm to navigate and the stream propelled him forward until he collided with Thanatos. The flier's wings were firmly shut and Henry wrapped his arms around his neck as tightly as he could.

He knew not whether Thanatos even sensed him, all he knew was that he would not let go. Not like... Henry gasped for air when their heads breached the surface together. He violently retched, attempting to regurgitate all the water he had swallowed, yet his grip on the flier's neck remained firm. His cheek pressed into wet fur.

Henry would not have been able to tell for how long the raging flood dragged them along, it could have been minutes or hours. All he registered was that the enormous pressure something had released down in the Ice System consistently pushed them upward and the tunnel split multiple times, narrowing more and more until it barely exceeded Thanatos' own wingspan.

He had his eye shut for most of the time, fiercely combatting the deafening cacophony around him. His arms were locked around Thanatos' neck and he sensed the flier's trembling alongside his own.

His heart pounded frantically in his ears. Henry squeezed his eye shut even tighter and made out Thanatos' heartbeat next to his own. Next to...

A pained scream escaped Henry's throat as a piece of debris struck the back of his head and he nearly released Thanatos' neck. Only in the last moment, he prevented the wet fur from slipping out of his grasp.

He was still too taken up with chasing the violent sparks that clustered his vision to properly register it when the flier sounded a hoarse cry. He blinked and tightened his grip even further. What was Thanatos...

Henry's back nearly hit the wall that bordered the river and he only now registered how tight the tunnel had become. It was barely three or four feet wide anymore, and as his gaze darted ahead to check whether it would remain high enough to breathe his heart skipped a beat.

"Water... fall..."

His mouth opened to scream as Henry gazed down the impending abyss in front of them that relentlessly swallowed all water, and would swallow them also. It was far too late to prevent anything. His eye squeezed shut yet before Henry could scream a violent collision forced all air out of his lungs and sent a sting of sharp pain through his abdomen.

His arm just about wrapped around the rock that stood firmly against the water masses, barely breaching the surface. Yet to grasp it, he'd had to ease his grip on Thanatos' neck.

"NOO!", Henry helplessly watched the flier's wet fur slip through his fingers and for a second a swell of panic numbed his senses, only to be broken by a violent jolt of pain. For a second Henry thought his arm would dislocate as Thanatos' claw had tightly closed around his hand.

"Don't... let... go", he squeezed out and another pained scream escaped him. Something other than the ever-rushing water ran down his tightly shut fist. Henry clenched his jaw so hard it hurt and watched the blood that oozed from where Thanatos' claws relentlessly dug into his skin drip into the abyss. In the faint glow of the water, it seemed almost black. "Don't..."

"Let... go."

Henry's eye widened as he stared into dull amber slits. "You..."

"Let... go."

The words thrust into Henry's heart like a blade.

"NO!", he cried and tightened his grip even further, despite the talons that still cut into his flesh. "Don't... do this", he pleaded, yet the amber was empty. No, the word pounded in his skull, not like this. Not like... You are a PARASITE – he barely registered the tears that now relentlessly streamed down his cheeks – a parasite that has attached itself to me, to drain the last bit of life I had left, and will not let go! Will not allow me to let it go! Let go. Let... go. Let... go.

It was not until he registered his hand was colored in a unanimous red from blood when he understood he would not be able to hold on for much longer. No, he desperately tightened his fist, I will not watch him fall. Watch him die. Watch him... Henry's eye widened as he stared at his flier.

An image flashed before his inner eye and he was numbed with panic when he at last understood. It's not him, Henry's teeth gnashed against each other. It's me.

Then something struck his back, another piece of debris. A jolt of pain shot through his shoulder and Henry let out a visceral scream as his hand reflexively opened. Thanatos' talons tore his skin as his grasp slipped.

Henry's vision sparked and his throat would not voice a single sound as he caught a last glance into the panicked eyes of his flier before he was swallowed by the gaping abyss, leaving Henry to cling to the rock and unbelievingly stare after him...

Alone.